The present invention relates to assist handles and straps for vehicles and particularly to a mounting plate for attaching an assist handle or strap to a vehicle headliner and roof.
Assist straps or grab handles are in common use in vehicles and are typically mounted to the vehicle roof above a door for assistance in ingress and egress from the vehicle. Assist handles are also frequently mounted to vehicle doors for assistance in their closing. With the integration of vehicle accessories in premanufactured subassemblies of a vehicle, such as headliners and door panels, it has become desirable to mount the handles or straps to the vehicle headliner prior to installation of the headliner in the vehicle itself. In order to provide additional structural rigidity for the subassembly, frequently a backing plate is employed on the side of the headliner facing the vehicle roof and opposite that of the assist handle. The assist handle is then mounted to the vehicle headliner by a fastener extending through the backing member and into a Z-axis clip for subsequent snap-fitting into the vehicle and final tightening of the fastener. U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,783 discloses such a system, which allows preassembly of assist straps or handles to a vehicle headliner prior to final installation in the vehicle.
In such construction, the fastening clip is aligned with the backing member but is not captively held thereto until the fastener, such as a screw, extends through the assist strap, the headliner, the backing member and into the fastening clip. The clip, accordingly, must be properly aligned with respect to the backing member prior to installation in a mating aperture in the vehicle roof structure. Further, however, if it becomes necessary to remove an assist handle for repair, the fastening clip remains in the vehicle roof since it is snap-locked thereto. The backing member is then is not attached to the headliner or to the fastening clip and can float and misalign behind the vehicle headliner should the assist handle be removed, for example, to replace a bulb of a light assembly associated with the assist handle or for other repair of the assist strap or other accessory requiring removal of the headliner. The backing member, if misaligned, makes it impossible for the fastening screw to then be reinserted into the fastening clip since the backing member, typically a solid polymeric plate, obstructs the passage of the fastener into the fastening clip.
As a result, there exists a need for providing a backing assembly for preassembling an assist handle or strap to a vehicle headliner prior to final installation and one which aligns the Z-axis fastening clip with respect to the backing member and captively holds the backing member to the clip once installed such that if the assist handle is subsequently removed, the backing member remains aligned with and attached to the fastening clips with which it is associated.